Chapter 13 #2
Emory quickly stripped down, and Cameron allowed himself a moment to admire his alpha’s strong body, with its planes of muscles and sharp lines that softened when he was holding Cameron. Emory permitted his ogling and then gave Cameron an appreciative once-over as amber bled into his irises.
While Cameron savored his fated mate’s approval, his octopus could do without.
He gestured impatiently at the bath with a tentacle.
A bit of water sloshed over the edge and onto Cameron’s feet as Emory climbed into the bath.
The water felt unnaturally good against his skin, and before Emory was even fully settled, Cameron scrambled in after him.
He gave Emory only a second to find a comfortable position against the side of the tub before he surged forward into his arms.
“Hi, honey,” Emory said, eagerly pulling him into a hug. Cameron’s tentacles splashed happily in the water, and he couldn’t wait another minute.
He raised his head and locked eyes with Emory, taking in the love and warmth that swirled amongst the amber and brown.
Cameron’s skin tightened, and his skull began to change shape.
His arms, legs, and tentacles shrank back towards his body while his torso and head merged together.
He marveled at the way Emory’s gorgeous eyes turned gray.
Of course, they didn’t actually change; Cameron just lost the ability to see color.
The whole thing only took about five seconds, but it always felt like it happened in slow motion.
Perhaps because his mind slowed down and settled into feelings more than coherent thought.
Right now, he was feeling overjoyed, so he wiggled his eight legs happily and watched awe and love settle across Emory’s features.
Emory carefully brought his hands together under the water to cup Cameron’s body. He was a bit bigger than a coconut, which was quite big for a non-shifter octopus.
Emory opened his mouth and began to speak.
Cameron did his best to concentrate. Shifter animals could understand human speech, but it was a little muddled.
Emory’s familiar cadence was a bit easier to follow, but it was still hazy.
This would be fixed with a mate bond…but he was getting ahead of himself.
“You are…ever seen. Truly…exquisite…so beautiful. I…love…much. I can’t wait…my lion. It will…you, too. My sweet…thank you.”
Emory continued murmuring sweet nothings, but Cameron didn’t need to listen to understand the gist of it.
He loved Emory, too. Even as an octopus, he knew he loved this man with every fiber of his being.
Shifter beasts understood fated mates and mate bonds better than normal human emotions, but even without that, his octopus loved Emory to the tips of every one of his tentacles.
Emory had stopped speaking and was instead tentatively stroking Cameron’s tentacles, one at a time.
Cameron tucked the one that was more sex organ than limb safely against his body.
He didn’t like to be sexual as an octopus.
Some shifters of the same species found it easier to conceive in their shifted forms, while others found it easier as humans.
Cameron wasn’t sure about octopuses, having been uninterested when he was a teen and then not bothering to look it up once he’d discovered he was unable to conceive.
Emory sank lower into the water and pulled Cameron higher up on his chest, settling the bulk of Cameron’s body on top of his heart.
Vaguely, Cameron remembered how he’d been feeling the past week: untethered and off kilter. He felt none of that now. Everything was absolutely perfect. The water was perfect. His body was perfect. His mate’s body was… Well, he didn’t have a mate quite yet. That wasn’t perfect.
One of his tentacles skimmed across the water and curled over the side of Emory’s shoulder, right where it met his neck.
His octopus knew how to mate. He couldn’t do it in his animal form, but when the time finally came, he would latch his suction cups onto Emory’s neck and would, in essence, give him a massive hickey.
If Emory returned the mate marking, which Cameron assumed was with a bite, Cameron’s suction cups would mark him, exactly where they were sitting right now.
Emory stroked his hand softly over the top of Cameron’s large head.
He wasn’t entirely smooth, having some bumps and small horns that he could use to camouflage.
Emory traced over every ridge and groove, delicately touching the side of his funnel.
If Cameron was fully underwater, he would take in water through his siphon, absorb the oxygen from it, and then push it back out through his funnel.
He didn’t think the thought consciously, but he felt happy and a little silly, so he purposefully pushed air out of his funnel, causing it to open up. Emory jerked his hand back and looked at Cameron in alarm.
Cameron laughed internally until Emory’s hand didn’t immediately return to stroking him. Two tentacles reached out and grabbed the coconut shells, pulling one underneath himself and tapping the other one against Emory’s hand.
“Hey!” Emory softly chided, retreating his hand even further.
Cameron used another tentacle to grab his wrist, and this time tapped him on the head with the coconut shell. When Emory gaped at him, Cameron yanked Emory’s hand until it came to rest on his body again.
Emory gave him a rather unimpressed look. “Your octopus…a bit of a brat.”
If Cameron’s octopus could giggle, he would have.
He was a bit of a brat; his parents had called him that often when he would run around the house wearing only a coconut shell.
The memory made him even happier, so he lifted two tentacles out of the water, not the ones holding Emory’s wrist or the coconut shell, and placed them on either side of Emory’s face.
Emory’s expression softened, and he tilted his head into one of the tentacles.
“I love you.”
Cameron tapped his face three times, mimicking the rhythm of Emory’s words. Emory’s eyes widened, and a sheen of water dulled their gray color.
His octopus wasn’t sure what to do with that, so he gently tapped him with the coconut shell again.
Emory laughed, the vibrations reverberating through Cameron’s body.
He fanned out his tentacles and wiggled back and forth happily, showing off his pretty tentacle skirt the same way he’d shown off his new skirt in the boutique.
Maybe someday he’d wear it out in public.
He knew Ronan would appreciate it, and Christopher would support anything that made them both happy.
Emory placed a soft kiss between Cameron’s eyes.
He went cross-eyed trying to follow the movement, which made Emory laugh again.
He caught one of Cameron’s tentacles and brought it up to his lips for another kiss, his thumb absently rubbing against one of Cameron’s suction cups.
It was strange; Cameron could actually taste Emory’s skin through the suction cup.
When he was human, this sense was severely limited, but as an octopus, it was almost equivalent to licking him.
Cameron curled his tentacle around Emory’s fingers, drawing them back to his body. Emory shook his head fondly. “So needy…sweet octopus.”
Growing up, Cameron had never thought that needing someone was a bad thing.
His pa had a lot of needs, and his ba did everything in his power to meet them.
Thomas had spent most of their relationship whining about how needy Cameron was, tainting that just like he’d tainted so much else for Cameron.
For years afterward, Shay had tried to coax Cameron into expressing his needs to someone who wasn’t her or their parents.
It wasn’t until he met—and subsequently fell for—Emory that he let himself need another person again.
He was allowed to have needs. He was allowed to ask for things he wanted and liked, and he could have preferences because…
he was safe. He knew it, and his octopus knew it, and although his thoughts were still languid and flowing, like seaweed drifting in the current, he was able to hold onto that particular thought very clearly.
So clearly, he gently bonked Emory on the head again, loving the exasperated smile on his lips and his resounding laugh.
“Okay…enough of that…give it here.” Emory tried to grab the shell, but Cameron evaded, swimming backward in the tub. Emory glared playfully at him and moved forward.
They swam around the tub, flapping about until at least a quarter of the water ended up on the floor.
“Honey, how…want to be an octopus for? Getting cold…hot water?”
Cameron’s octopus wanted to stay like this forever, but his human side knew that wasn’t reasonable. He also hadn’t gotten to see Emory’s lion yet. He wiggled his tentacles one last time and swam back into Emory’s arms. Emory held him close, placing one more kiss on his head.
Cameron closed his eyes and felt his hair form first. It branched out from the top of his head as his torso elongated, and his tentacles withdrew into his body. A few seconds later, he was back in his human form, being held tightly against Emory’s chest.
“Hi—” Cameron tried to say, but Emory crashed their mouths together.
Cameron squirmed around until he could hover above Emory, cupping his face in his hands the same way he had with his tentacles.
“I love you so much,” Emory growled, his hands clutching the backs of Cameron's thighs.
Desire swirled in his belly for the first time in days. He finally felt good in his skin again, and all of his skin was currently pressed up against his amazing, sexy fated mate.
“Did you want to–”
“See your lion? Yes, absolutely. But could we maybe…”
Cameron channeled all the confidence he’d felt as an octopus, along with that feeling of safety, into his next kiss. It felt like ice water on a sweltering day, and he stretched out against Emory’s chest to rub their bodies together.